There was also the much shorter Thorn EMI tape with just episodes 4 and 5 on it, but unlike Space Quest and Wars it was the two episodes consecutively rather than being a mashup of other episodes. Made for a very short tape, but I recall it being good quality footage. God, I remember encoding those years back, my hard drive was gasping for air as I crammed in the raw files before compressing them...

(AndyThomas @ Jan. 29 2014,12:38)QUOTEThere was also the much shorter Thorn EMI tape with just episodes 4 and 5 on it, but unlike Space Quest and Wars it was the two episodes consecutively rather than being a mashup of other episodes. Made for a very short tape, but I recall it being good quality footage. God, I remember encoding those years back, my hard drive was gasping for air as I crammed in the raw files before compressing them...Wasn't that where the Carter and Shiro Academy scenes came from when the site only had VHS Screenshots to go off of? It's dumb that the US VHS tapes had to cut that given that it gives so much depth, especially when Episode 12 comes into play.I can tell you, technology has come a far way. My laptop from 2005 (which lasted until 2011) would barely render a Windows Movie Maker video file without turning hotter than lava. That computer was like driving an old beat up car, you're always afraid it would die. And knowing how long the sites been around, it's cringeworthy to think how that went for you, Andy.

Oh absolutely, it used to be an overnight job trying to render them down to mpgs but I always tried to up-spec my system as far as I could back then to make them last. It was the raw DV files that were the problem, absolutely massive back then. Shame, because I would have liked to have hung onto them as source material.I think you're right, there are the odd cuts to the US tapes for no apparent reason and the firing range practice session is one of them and strangely enough that was one of the scenes I remembered very clearly from the series years before I saw it again. I really must watch it with my son, he's into Stingray and Thunderbirds at the moment, I'm just conscious of how he's going to react when Dr Benn bites the dust!

(AndyThomas @ Feb. 04 2014,11:31)QUOTEOh absolutely, it used to be an overnight job trying to render them down to mpgs but I always tried to up-spec my system as far as I could back then to make them last. It was the raw DV files that were the problem, absolutely massive back then. Shame, because I would have liked to have hung onto them as source material.I think you're right, there are the odd cuts to the US tapes for no apparent reason and the firing range practice session is one of them and strangely enough that was one of the scenes I remembered very clearly from the series years before I saw it again. I really must watch it with my son, he's into Stingray and Thunderbirds at the moment, I'm just conscious of how he's going to react when Dr Benn bites the dust!Hell, I'm surprised you computer didn't burst into flames, but then again - I'm surprised my old one didn't either. It's quite a testament to how technology has improved, hell, on my old computer I couldn't render in HD, well I could but it would literally take like 3 hours. My current computer(s) can do it in only 2-3 minutes.In both the UK and US VHS releases, the cuts just seem rotten and poorly transitioned - the UK ones (Space Quest more so) IMO are even worst given because they fire from one cut scene to another. And I don't think there's ever an age where any person won't feel teary eyed during Dr. Benn's death scene - it's a shame because he was my favorite of the heroes.

(Crash Override @ Feb. 06 2014,22:28)QUOTEDoes Dr Benn snuff it in Space Quest? I can't seem to remember that happening. It came as a surprise when I saw the whole series much later.Yeah he does, Makara and Orion don't thoughAlso in "Space Wars", they leave us to assume Carter dies in the attack on Jupiter, even though they have lines from him from Episode 11, though they never acknowledge it's him. We're left to assume that voice is nothing but a disembodied voice.

(AndyThomas @ Feb. 04 2014,11:31)QUOTEI'm just conscious of how he's going to react when Dr Benn bites the dust!Probably like rest of us with sobs, Kleenex and emotional scars! Tbf, just one of the many reasons why kids had it better back then, before the PC brigade had their way. We weren't all treated like 2 year olds, to be shielded from life's realities.

I now figured out how to emulate the audio on "Thalian Space Wars" in Adobe Audition using the Dynamics Processor 3.1 Expander. I think it emulated the unequal nature of the audio, where the voices sound louder than the music and it all sounds a bit muffled...